So you’ve got a business.  Do you have a business team to help you run your business?

No I don’t mean a multi-level marketing team.

I mean do you have advisers to help you grow your business? People like an accountant, lawyer, financial advisor, and business mentor?

I just hired a new accountant to not only do all my taxes but do all the bookkeeping for my business. So far the guy has cost me $700 but has saved me over $4000 in taxes. Plus because he does all my bookkeeping it frees up my time.  It’s hard to say how much my time is worth but certainly worth $700.  AND the headache. I hate bookkeeping and taxes and I procrastinate because I hate it so much.  On the other hand it makes my wife happy to know that there is a professional watching over my business.  A happy wife is definitely worth $700!

Here is a tip for you.

When you go out to find a team, look small.  Don’t look big.

My wife still has a job. She is a middle manager of an engineering company and reports to the Chief Financial Officer.  So when I was looking for an accountant I asked my wife to talk to her boss.  So I got the name of a big time accounting firm.  The kind of place that has a building in town named after them.

That big accounting firm became my first accountant.  I met with a junior partner of the firm.  They talked about helping me learn Quickbooks and I’d basically send them Quickbook files. It sounded ok. It wasn’t my first choice but it was the first time I ever met with an accountant so I thought it sounded like a good deal. Unfortunately they basically relied on me to do every thing.  I needed to do all the bookkeeping and send them info.  They weren’t very proactive on my account.  They would basically contact me last minute to let me know quarterly taxes were ready.  In some cases they’d contact me so late the only choice was to file an extension. AND I was expected to pay an estimate of what I owe even though we were filing an extension.

Needless to say that wasn’t working out for me and my wife was getting frustrated.  So guess what? We contacted one of those cheesy little accounting firms.  You know the franchise “Liberty Tax“?  They are the ones that have people dress up and stand outside on the street in a Statue of Liberty or Uncle Sam costume during tax season.  It looks a little cheesy but I talked to the guy and I was impressed by him.

So I went to meet the guy from the cheesy little accounting firm.  It turns out he thinks the marketing is cheesy too, but they have done studies that show they get recognition from the people standing out on the street.  So much so that within 1 year of opening an office in an area that they get name brand recognition where you could ask a random person where the nearest liberty tax is and they’d be able to tell you!  That’s pretty good right?

To make a long story a bit shorter… I met with the guy and I was totally impressed by him.  His prices are very reasonable and they can do all my bookkeeping.  They could even pay my bills and such if I want them too.

When you’re looking for a business team don’t get distracted by the glitz of a big agency.  Sometimes for small business owners the little guys are easier to work with and they’ll work harder for you because they are hungry for your business.  The little Liberty Tax guy works harder for me because I’m a bigger part of his business and he knows I can bring him a lot of referrals.  The big accounting firm doesn’t really need my business because they are used to working with large companies that do tens or hundreds of millions in business.

So I’m happy.  I have someone who can do all my bookkeeping and free my time up for the parts of my  business I can’t hire out to other people.

How about you?  Do you have a business team?  Where did you find them?

- Ben Fitts

Popularity: 8% [?]

Do you ever have prospects that don’t have the money?

Does your company have one of these entry level distributor programs that doesn’t really give them the tools they need to succeed?

One of the strategies I use is I encourage my prospects who don’t have money to signup for the full distributor program to sign up as customers instead.  Begin to use the product.  Start to develop their own stories.  Start to develop some referrals.  Begin to act as if they were already a distributor. I start to work with them just like they were a distributor.

One of the reasons most people say they don’t have the money is because their belief system isn’t strong enough.

If you showed them a briefcase full of money and said they could have it in 6 months if they paid $400 now, most of them would find a way to get $400.  They’d hold a garage sale.  They’d borrow money from a friend.  They’d sacrifice in some other areas of their life to save the money to invest.  They’d figure out a way to make it happen.

If you can  get the prospect to start as a customer at the very least you’ll get a customer out of the deal.  If you can get them to begin to develop some referrals then you’re showing them that briefcase.  You’re showing them money they could be getting if they invested in becoming a distributor with your company.  Showing them that they can do it and showing them that people will genuinely be interested in the product or opportunity is one of the ways to get them to increase their belief.

Having people who don’t have money is not a bad thing.  It can be a very strong motivator.  Someone who is really hungry for the business is a great thing.  It’s a very powerful thing and I’d love to have a team full of hungry people who are motivated than a bunch of people who are already successful.

Sometimes the successful people go slower because they aren’t as hungry!  I have on my team a few people who have a lot of experience and already own very profitable businesses.  These people have the contacts and the skills to be successful but they’re already so busy and they don’t have a strong need for another income stream.  Sometimes they can be the most frustrating to work with because they don’t “need” this business.  I’d almost rather have someone who is hungry and motivated.  They’ll be more likely to get to work quickly.

What do you do with people who say they don’t have enough money?

- Ben Fitts

The Custom Greeting Card Guy

Popularity: 8% [?]

When you’re trying to sell your product or your business opportunity… one of the tricks you want to use is tell stories.  Big Al calls it “word pictures” but basically it’s just a story.

Some people get all caught up in he facts and figures, the numbers, the unique qualities of the product, etc.  MOST people don’t care about that stuff.  About 14% of the people you talk to are of the personality type where that stuff matters.  The other 86% could care less.  Some of them will be immediately turned off if you start to talk about your ingredients, your manufacturing process, etc.

So how can you sell better?

Learn to tell stories.  Learn to paint word pictures.

Tell stories of people who have used your product and had great success with it.

Suzie, one of my customers is in the construction business.  She sells products to contractors and with our recession and the down turn in the real estate market most contractors are struggling.  You might think Suzie is struggling too because her job is to sell to contractors who don’t have enough money, have to lay off employees, etc.  However a few months ago Suzie started to use our product.  She started sending cards just to check in with her customers and see how they were doing.  Her customers realized Suzie really wanted to help them and they ended up ordering more products than ever from Suzie.  While Suzie’s competitors are all struggling, Suzie is doing better than ever now that she started to use our greeting card follow up system.

Tell stories of how having a home business has changed your life.

About a year and a half ago I was working a job and building my business part-time.  My business had grown to be very successful and I was very busy trying to keep up with both the job and the business. Our annual reviews had come up and my boss called me into his office. I sat in the chair with confidence because I knew no matter what he said it wouldn’t matter.  I had a great review but that didn’t matter any more to me because I knew I was about to tell him that he couldn’t pay me enough.  That coming to work every day was costing me money and it was time I went full time in my business.  It was a great feeling!

Would you like to be able to have a story like these to tell your prospects?

These stories allow your prospects to envision themselves in the picture.  They can envision going into their bosses office and telling their boss that they can’t pay enough to keep them.  They can envision being able to retire from their job and focus on their business.

When you’re starting out in your business you may not have your own stories but you can use the stories of your upline.  Learn their stories and share their stories with your prospects.  As you grow your business collect these stories.  Write them down.  Ask your downline to share stories.  Ask your customers to share stories. The more stories you have the more successful you’ll be

Do you have any interesting stories you use to grow your business?

- Ben Fitts

Popularity: 7% [?]

One of the Charities I give to has a philosophy that allows your donations to keep on going.

The idea is you donate to help families in impoverished areas by helping them raise their own food.  You may help purchase a flock of chickens, sheep, ducks, or even a cow.  The families sign an agreement that they will return the favor and pass on the first generation from these farm animals to their neighbors.  So one family gives a few chickens to their neighbors to help them create their own flock of chickens.

The charity is called Heifer International.

It’s a great charity and I recommend it to everyone.

- Ben Fitts

PS. Remember your donations are tax deductable too!

Popularity: 7% [?]

With a bad economy in the US some families won’t have Christmas this year.

We as network marketers, especially those of us making a good income from our business need to realize how fortunate we are.

Some families won’t have enough money to buy Christmas gifts this year.  Their behind on their credit cards and mortgage.  They may have recently gotten laid off from their job.  They’re struggling to survive and they can’t afford the simple things like Christmas gifts for their kids.

When I was young my family had several bad years. I remember one year in high school where we were so broke that we wouldn’t have had Christmas at all if some people from our church hadn’t helped us out.  I remember being poor enough that our electricity was cut off and we slept in the den around the fire. I know what it’s like to live without.

This year if you’re fortunate to be making a decent income from your business remember to give to others.  Some organizations you might want to donate to include:

• Toys for Tots
• Goodwill
• The Salvation Army
• Your local foodbank
• Your local church may also have fundraisers for lower income families and shut-ins

Don’t forget those that are less fortunate than you!

- Ben Fitts

Popularity: 7% [?]

So you want to learn how to market your MLM opportunity or product on the internet?

One of the most important things to remember about internet marketing is it takes time.  There are dozens of different ways to market on the internet and learning to master them will take you time.  Depending on how fast you learn and who is teaching you it could take months or even years.  I’ve been on the internet since 1993 and I’ve been building and marketing web sites since 1997.  Heck even this blog is 3 years old.  I didn’t get good at it for probably the first 2 years!

You can learn the internet stuff and it can be great for your business but don’t let it distract you from building your business.  Keep using offline marketing methods.  Keep talking to your friends and family.  Keep passing out your company DVD or product samples or whatever you do.  Keep inviting people to opportunity seminars and passing out flyers.

That way you continue to build your business WHILE you learn the internet stuff.  That’s what my good friend Jack did.  He was already a sales person and was good at the offline marketing but he didn’t know the online stuff.  So he started learning the online stuff while continuing to grow his business offline.  Pretty soon he had a thriving business both on the internet and off.

If you want to learn the internet stuff I recommend a great place to start is my 44 page ebook Nichework Marketing.  It gives a great overview of how I market on the internet.

- Ben Fitts

Popularity: 8% [?]

Today I was on a discussion board and someone was asking whether or not blogging works for network marketing.  This was my answer:

There is more to blogging than simply writing a blog post.

Did you use keywords in the title? Did you tag the post?

Do you submit the post to news/marketing/bookmark sites like Digg, PlugIM, Marktd, Sphinn, Propeller, etc?

What was the content of your article?

How did you follow up the article?

Did you encourage people to comment on your articles or leave a question for them to answer?

Here is a BIG trick.
1. write a controversial article
2. use every bit of contacts with friends and family you can to get them to digg, sphinn, plugim, etc. your article.
3. post to forums that day with signatures linking back to article
4. announce to your mailing list to read that article
5. encourage people to comment

That’s more than most of you do… BUT You have to go one step further. You have to follow up IMMEDIATELY with some of your best articles ever. Whether or not it’s more controversial stuff or giving away some really good free tips and advice. Whatever it is make sure you follow up the very next day with some of the best content you’ve ever written.

That way when you get momentum you keep the momentum going. If someone reads your blog because of your controversial article you want them to keep coming back. If your blog is dormant for 5 days after your controversial article you’ll loose most of the new readers you picked up.

- Ben Fitts
The Custom Greeting Card Guy

Popularity: 7% [?]

In the last few weeks I’ve occasionally written about ideas on how to market in a down economy.

A friend of mine (Jack) who is not currently doing MLM has been telling me about his successes. You see he started a podcast about the economy.  He calls it the Survival Podcast – Helping you live the life you want if times get tough or even if they don’t.  He has been having tremendous success with this podcast.  He has hundreds of listeners and is closing in on a thousand listeners.  He has a popular discussion board with thousands of posts.  He has people voluntering to help promote his site.

You see Jack has a few things going for him.

1. He picked a hot topic.  He’s writing about what to do if times get tough and they actually did get tough.
2. He has personality.  You might not always agree with the guy but he’s fun to listen to.
3. People are desperate for help.
4. He marketed it a little bit to help get it going.
5. He consistently posts new shows.  He tries to post a new show 5 days a week.

Now let’s think about this from a MLM point of view.  You could go out and create your own blog or podcast (a podcast is basically an audio blog in MP3 format and can be downloaded from sites like Apple iTunes.) You can pick a hot topic like the economy.  Or you can go out and find blogs and podcasts on these topics and simply buy advertising on them.

I’ve considered setting up my own podcast since I hear how successful my buddy Jack is. My concern is this is my busy time of year.  I don’t have a lot of spare time.  So I could instead perhaps buy advertising on other sites.

I have both money and leads already coming into my business.  So I don’t neccessarily need to start my own web site on the economy to get more leads.  Since I have some money to invest in advertising I can go out and buy some ads.  That way I can focus more on following up with the leads I have and less on making a web site to get new leads.

If however you are new to MLM or Network Marketing or aren’t making a lot of money yet, you might want to take the cheaper route of creating your own blog or podcast about the economy.

- Ben Fitts
The Custom Greeting Card Guy

Popularity: 7% [?]

Hi readers,

Are you guys taking advantage of the down economy to recruit for your MLM?

One question I have for you is… Are you using more coupons?  Are you reading through the coupons like the “Valpak” coupons that come in the mail?  How about the cheap little newspapers like the Thrity Nickel, PennySaver, or ClipperMagazine?

I normally don’t advertise in these kind of newspapers and coupon guides.  I usually find them to be a bad source because the people who respond to the ads are usually looking for a job or don’t have money to sart a business… But I wonder… Are more people looking at these newspapers for ways to save money?  Might we find better prospects here than in the past?

What do you think? Have you found any tricks that are working for you to market in this down economy?

- Ben Fitts

Popularity: 8% [?]

Do you have leadership?

Earlier this week someone from my team called to ask for some advice.  She was complaining about her lack of upline support and she was reaching out to me because her immediate upline hasn’t been helping her.

While upline support is important it isn’t essential.

I don’t have an upline any more.  They quit or sold out of the business years ago.  So it’s just me.  There’s no one else for me to blame but myself.  If I don’t succeed it’s just me to blame.

Some people might be shocked.  But the reality is when you know you have leaders is when you know that they will continue in the business with or without you.  When you have real leaders they are the kind of perrson that can do things without you.  Sure you’re help can help them succeed faster but they’re unstoppable.  Even if you quit the business they would continue on and continue building without you.

I’m not saying upline support isn’t helpful. Upline support can help you go faster because you don’t have to do it all yourself.  Your upline can provide training or resources that you can plug your team into.  You won’t have to create these tools and training materials from scratch.  That allows you to focus on recruiting and helping your new people get started quickly.

But you know you’re a leader when your upline isn’t helping and you STILL succeed.

- Ben Fitts

If you’re looking for upline support that provides free training, free marketing web sites, and support then I think I do that (learn more about my business here.)

Natalie says “I really do appreciate all the help and support that you provide.  It makes the business so much better to have support like you. Have a wonderful day.”

Popularity: 7% [?]